I’ve been bothered by a dip in the brickwork by my front door for the past several years, so had a company give me a quote on fixing it. I said okay to their proposal, the work was done, but the dip is still there. I’ve written emails to this effect but no response, and finally last night it rained, filling the dip nicely, so that I was able to get a couple of different photos. I’ve now sent these to the company owner and am awaiting his reply.

To ease my agitated nerves I decided to go to Value Village as today is Seniors’ Day. It’s the only time I shop there as their prices are crazy given these are all donated items. But today stuff was 30% off for those of us lucky enough to have made it this far in life. I immediately happened upon a foldable mattress which I like having if I need a spare bed for a kid or something.

Then I saw the most beautiful cream and sugar set, and on the bottom, it said Flora Levy 1935. As the set was $5 I bought them immediately and raced home to do research. Turns out she was an American art craftsman and designer trained at the famed Newcomb College Arts and Crafts studio. Estimated value at auction $200 – $500 for the pair. In an antique shop they’d go for between $350 and $750+.

I think you can see the huge benefits of thrifting. First of all, my nerves are entirely calm throughout the experience, yet I’m in the moment and very focused. Secondly, I end up with some extremely valuable things which is why Elsa calls it treasure hunting. Of course, I also buy a lot of useless crap but that’s part of the therapy as a few months or years later these items are returned.

If I didn’t do these returns, I would be living as a true hoarder. I’m not denying that I’m headed that way but at least for now every couple of weeks a large bag is dropped off. I sometimes find myself eyeing something that I once owned, and wondering why I no longer liked it, but I force myself to move along and not buy it a second time. Now that would be crazy, right?

A few weeks ago I found an old Company’s Coming cookbook called Soups. I found a fab recipe for mulligatawny soup which I made for Marie and she thought it was wonderful. If you ever come across any of these old cookbooks buy them as their recipes are still good.

Then on Friday I’m going to make a Polish dill pickle soup, though not from the same cookbook. This comes from a chi chi foodie magazine, so I’m quite excited to try it as well. I’m taking it over to Joan, my former Reiki master who finds herself largely homebound due to health issues. This soup should perk her up a bit.

I was one of the 48% of BCers who bothered to vote in the Provincial election. Why the Premier thought it’d be a good idea to call this election two years into a four-year majority is a head scratcher. The good part is we’ll have a new term for the next while. If a politician pulls a stupid stunt by calling an early election and then is defeated, he’ll have done a David Eby.

With the retired person’s schedule and all, Phyllis and I are meeting in Peachland tomorrow to have lunch at the Blind Angler and then check out their thrift store. We’ll then head south to Summerland to check out theirs. You see there’s no end to the benefits of thrifting, this one involves lunch plus a nice visit with an old pal.